Family
by Byrdde
Summary: A face out of Daniel's past, and a story that shakes the foundations of the SGC… [suspended indefinitely]
1. Late Night Visitor

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters you recognize, the Stargate, or Cheyenne Mountain…actually, the only thing I do own is Kieal. I'm not making any money off of this (if I was, I wouldn't be on fanfic), so you can all enjoy with a clear conscious. 

A sharp knock on his apartment door caused Daniel to jump, nearly spilling coffee over the papers spread on his table. He glanced at the clock curiously. Eleven-fifteen. When had it gotten so late? And who would come to his apartment at this hour without calling first?

The knock sounded again.

Sighing and placing his coffee carefully away from the symbol covered papers, he ran a hand through his hair as he rose. Reaching the door, he flipped on the overhead lights, figuring that a guest might be a bit uncomfortable with only the desk lamp he used to help him concentrate. A tad annoyed at the interruption, he pulled the door open, half expecting to find Jack waving a fishing pole threateningly under his nose.

Instead, a girl of about seventeen stood in the hall, a duffel thrown over her shoulder and a small suitcase resting at her feet. She looked up at him, reproach shining in her eyes. Strange eyes, colored silver with flecks and swirls of blue and copper.

"Studying?" she asked.

"Kieal?" blurted Daniel in surprise. What on Earth - or any other planet, he added self-consciously - was she doing here?

"Hi Danny," she said lightly, glancing over his shoulder to the slightly cluttered apartment. "Can I…?"

"Oh - yeah, sure…" he stepped aside to let the girl and her bags in, glancing up and down the hall behind her before closing the door. Turning, he found that she had already dropped her bags on the couch and was studying the papers he'd left out. Before he could collect his shocked mind enough to say anything, though, she sighed and looked up. 

"I guess I have to explain why I'm here?"

"That would help, yes," he said cautiously. His experience with teenage girls was limited, and he wasn't exactly sure what was expected when one showed up on your doorstep near midnight.

She sat down suddenly, landing heavily on the couch. "I've got some news for you, Danny…it's…not so great," her voice had a high, falsetto ring now.

"What? Is something wrong?" he asked, nervous. "Is everyone all right?"

She buried her face in her hands for a moment and, when she looked back up, there were tear smudges on her face. "They're dead, Daniel."

"What…who?" he asked, a growing dread turning his stomach to lead.

"Who do you think?" she snapped. "My parents. They died…were killed, last Tuesday."

Closing his eyes in horror, Daniel groped his way to a chair and collapsed. Linus and Cindy…

Daniel had never truly felt as if he had a real family after his parents death, but the last foster home he had lived in had made a golden effort at incorporating him into their clan. Linus had been his foster father's brother. He and his wife had adopted Kieal when Daniel was nineteen, making them cousins of a strange sort. He had always liked the girl, kept in touch when he went away to school, and even afterwards. But…Linus and Cindy…

"God," he said hoarsely.

Linus had been a professor of linguistics at the community college. After his parents' deaths, Daniel had avoided the field of ancients studies for several years, but Linus had pushed him - forcefully enough at times - back onto the right track and reminded him how much he loved ancient languages. And Cindy - well, if nothing else, she had always had cookies out when he stopped by to visit.

"How?" he asked finally, raising his eyes back to the miserable girl on the couch.

"I…" she started, then shuddered. "Could we maybe do this in the morning?" 

"Yeah…of course. Let me get some blankets, you can sleep on the couch…" He scrambled around, gathering the things he thought she might need, his mind still trying to comprehend what she had told him. 

It wasn't as if he had spoken with them in years - he felt a guilty twinge - but they had always been there. A sort of last stronghold of familiarity should he ever need it. He paused for a moment, realizing just how long it had been since he had thought of them. Years…he'd never even mentioned them to Jack or Sam. And poor Kieal…

He dumped the armful of blankets, sheets, and pillows on the couch. Kieal looked at him oddly.

"Danny…"

"Hm?" he said, distractedly clearing the coffee table of papers and scraps.

"It's June." He frowned. Why was she discussing chronology? "It's really not that cold…" she tried again. Still confused, he glanced up at her, then to the mess he had dropped on the couch. Three or four heavy winter blankets were tangled in the mass, along with two pairs of fitted sheets and no less than six pillows. Oh.

"I…" he started gathering up the extras, careful to leave what she actually might need. "If you need anything, let me know…" he looked up at her. "And we'll talk in the morning, all right?" 

She nodded, mutely, before looking around the space as if searching for something. "Where's the bathroom?" she asked finally.

"Oh…of course. It's right through there," he pointed her in the right direction before fleeing to the safety of his room.

For a moment he just lay on his back, staring at the ceiling, questions and regrets racing through his mind.

Why hadn't he called them recently? Even thought of them? What was his seventeen year old cousin doing at his house? What had they thought happened to him? Why…

With a sigh, he rolled to a sitting position and reached for the phone, glancing at the clock again. It was almost one. Well, he obviously wasn't going into work tomorrow, and he should probably tell someone. Besides, he needed to hear a friendly voice. 

His hand paused just before dialing the last digit of Jack's phone number. Was this suicide? Calling a probably sleeping Colonel Jack O'Neill at one in the morning. Probably. Sighing, Daniel hit the last number.

Four…five…six…

If he hit thirteen rings with no answer he'd hang up, he promised himself, knowing that Jack's answering machine picked up after ten.

"Hello?" Jack's voice was sleep-filled and irritated.

"Jack?" Daniel asked tentatively.

"Daniel?" He sounded awake now. "Something had better be about ready to fry the planet or you are a dead man, Doctor Jackson."

"No…I just wanted to tell you that I won't be into work tomorrow," he said slowly, tensing for the reaction.

"What the…It's one in the morning!"

"I know." With a sigh, Daniel launched into the rather short and, he realized as he drew near the end, incomplete tale of his cousin's arrival. "She said she'd tell me what happened in the morning," he finished.

There was a pause. "I didn't think you had any family," Jack said at last and then, when Daniel's pained silence penetrated his sleep deprived brain, "Oh, I didn't mean…" He sighed. "Right, I'll tell them you won't be in."

"Thanks, Jack." There was a grunt and a click as Jack hung up his receiver.

Daniel lay back again, realizing belatedly that he should probably go switch the lights off. 

Staring blankly at the switch on the other side of the room, he decided it wasn't really worth it. He wasn't going to sleep much tonight, anyhow.

~

NB: The next chapter gets more interesting, I promise. If anyone wants me to post it, just tell me…


	2. Morning Coffee

Kieal groaned softly as the smell of fresh coffee called her gently back to the world of the living. Taking a deep breath, she wrinkled her nose. Eww, gross. She'd nearly forgotten Danny's obsession with the stuff. Briefly, she wondered if he had any cocoa or tea about the place. Probably not. Sighing, she pushed off the covers and half stood, half rolled off the couch.

She had slept in her clothes - it hadn't seemed very important at the time - and now dove into her suitcase for something with a few less wrinkles. After ducking into the bathroom to change and see if she couldn't make her hair lie flat, she reemerged and glanced around, wondering where Daniel might be.

Someone knocked on the door.

She looked around again, expecting Danny to come out of wherever he was hiding. What time was it, anyhow? After a brief search, she found a clock. Five-fifty. Since when did Danny get up before dawn? Unless he'd never gone to sleep…

He really didn't seem to be coming and whoever was at the door was getting impatient. Slightly nervous, she padded over and reached for the handle.

The smell of fresh doughnuts accosted her as soon as she pulled the door open, causing her neglected stomach to rumble meaningfully. Blushing slightly from embarrassment, she looked up at the man holding the doughnuts.

"Morning, Danny. I…Oh." He raised his eyebrows and glanced over Kieal's shoulder. He was dressed in a uniform - Air Force by the look of it - and had a pair of dark sunglasses tucked in his front pocket. "You must be…um…"

"Kieal," she said.

"Right…is Danny here?" he asked, almost pleading.

"Jack? What are you doing here?" asked Daniel, wandering up behind Kieal. 

"I brought you breakfast," the man said, waving the box of doughnuts around.

"Oh, thanks," said Daniel, taking the box and glancing inside. "Jelly filled?"

"Oops…that's mine," said the man, snagging the doughnut out of Danny's hand. "Well, I'd better be off. I'll tell Hammond that you won't be in today." He glanced at Kieal. "Nice meeting you…" he made a valiant attempt to pronounce her name.

"Ki is fine," she said.

"Right. Nice to meet you, Ki. Bye, Danny," and he was gone, jogging down the hall.

"Who was that?" asked Kieal, shutting the door and following Danny to the table, wondering briefly if any of those doughnuts were custard filled. Daniel's next question drove all thought of pastry from her mind.

"So…are we going to talk about what happened?" he asked softly, pouring a cup of coffee and avoiding her eyes.

Swallowing hard, she nodded and glanced around for a place to sit. Like the rest of the apartment, the kitchenette was cluttered, not offering many opportunities for a comfortable seat.

"Let's talk in the other room," Danny said kindly, leading her back out to the couch, still strewn with the pillow, sheets and blankets. Leaving her to sit in the nest of bedding, he took an overstuffed chair, brushing some papers aside as he sat. 

For a moment, Kieal just looked at him, and he watched her patiently, eyes sympathetic. For a moment, she remembered the first time she had met him, when she'd been only five…he'd been sympathetic then, too. The only one who would listen. She closed her eyes.

How was she supposed to do this _again_? She'd already recounted the terrible memory to the police, the representatives for the child placement agencies, the psychiatrist they'd made her see, and - when she had finally gathered her courage enough to call - her friends. Now again. But this was Danny…and he deserved the full story, unabridged and complete, not the muttered tale she'd given to the officials or the glossed horror she'd told to her friends. One more deep breath. _It's Danny…_

"We were on our way home from a week in Montana - Dad had been invited to do a guest lecture on the development and destruction of Native American dialects or something. He'd dragged Mom and I to a bunch of old sites, like he always does…did. We stopped at a gas station, Dad filled the tank, and then both of them decided to go in and grab some snacks, water, batteries, whatever. I stayed in the car.

"Once they'd been inside for a while, another car pulled up. It was beat up, dirty…there was no license plate. I remember thinking that was odd. Two men got out…and I thought my blood had stopped running through me. They were wearing masks…dark clothes, the whole works. I was in the back seat - very thankful for the tinted windows - and did my very best to not doing anything that would cause the car to shake or them to notice me. As soon as they'd gone inside, I dived for Mom's cell phone and dialed 911.

"The emergency operator was calm…she talked to me for several minutes, but then I dropped the phone. There had been a shriek inside the shop - followed by a gunshot…and then…it was so quiet…I knew, _knew_, that the shriek had been my mom…God, I must have stopped breathing for nearly a minute.

"The sound of sirens finally registered in my fogged mind, and apparently in the minds of the masked men, too. A figure dashed out of the door and to the beat up old car. A second later, the other man pushed out of the store, a third figure locked in his arms…he was waving a gun around. Even I could tell that he was panicked…the gun was trembling around and I was so scared that he would shoot it by mistake…

"Three police cruisers pulled up before he reached the car…someone called something over a megaphone that I was too frightened to understand, but he stopped - and I got a good look at his hostage's face. It was Dad…pale as if he was already a ghost. The man holding him, shouted something, waving the gun around more, his finger twitching nervously on the trigger…the police tried to talk him down, but he was so scared that no logic in the world could have convinced him to put that thing down and let go of Dad..

"Then…oh God, then the gun went off. I don't think he did it on purpose, he looked so shocked. Dad crumpled to the ground…so slowly - it took a self-contained eternity for what was left of his head to hit the pavement…" Finally, Kieal opened her eyes.

"Kieal…" began Daniel, but she stopped him.

"No, Danny, I'm not done." She shifted, shoulders relaxing and her strange eyes hardening as she gazed at her cousin.

"It took them days to sort everything out. Everyone kept asking me if I had any family I could stay with. I told them no, but they kept pressing me and digging through every old file they could find. Then, and you can imagine my surprise, they actually came up with a name. A Doctor Daniel Jackson, apparently living in Colorado.

"I didn't believe them at first. After all, the last time I heard from you, you had just been laughed out of the scientific community and evicted from you apartment. I still remember that conversation…you said that you'd be fine, just needed a change of scenery and you'd call me as soon as you'd settled into your new place - which we both knew you didn't actually have.

"But they contacted the military base where you were apparently working, and had your presence confirmed. They tried to call you, but you haven't answered the phone for the last several days. Finally, they had confirmation from the base CO that you would be home last night and, through what I must say was an amazing display of diplomacy and charm, I convinced them to drop me off and wait until this afternoon to drop in and talk to you.

"Danny, how could you?" she said very, very softly. "I thought you were dead. But no, you're just holed up at a secret military base in the mountains. Oh, and what I felt when we drove by that base!" She looked her cousin straight in the, wanting to make sure he understood the full implications of her next words.

"Danny, what do you have to do with the Stargate?"

~

NB: gasp How does she know about the 'Gate? Well, if you're really curious I can probably help you out…


	3. We Have a Problem

Daniel leapt to his feet, cursing mildly and trying to wipe hot coffee off his pants.  Kieal watched him, her face showing no emotion.

His mind was racing, hot panic racing in on the heels of the numbing pain that was the result of the first part of his cousin's story and the sneaking guilt from the second portion.  But now all he could think of was that one, burning word: Stargate.

Most of the coffee either wiped clean or too cool to matter now, he sat carefully back down, trying to salvage whatever dignity he had left.  Her eyes were shining now, reflecting the morning light in a disconcerting pattern of light and dark.  She wasn't blinking.

"The…the what?" he said, trying to sound innocent.

"The Stargate," she said, voice flat.

"I'm sorry, I don't know -"

"Of course not," she said in a voice so low it was almost a growl.  What had happened to his sweet, laughing cousin?  The girl sitting in front of him now was so…condemning.  "Spitting coffee in shock is a normal reaction to not knowing."

Daniel glanced down at his lap ruefully.  He always knew there was a reason he hadn't gone into acting.  "All right," he said at last.  "So maybe I do know something about it."  He looked back up at her.  "But how do _you know about it?"_

Her eyebrows shot up, and for a second she reminded Daniel for all the world of Jack just before he started stating the obvious.  "In all the conversations we ever had, didn't you _ever_ listen to me?"

"What…"  But memories were starting to stir.  A little girl, just adopted by Linus and Cindy, prattling away about a ridiculous fantasy.  "No."

"Yes."  She stared at him accusingly.  "I told you about the thing for years!  Didn't you even think about me once when you found out it actually exists?"

"You never talked about a Stargate…" he said, not really believing it himself.

"Porta Astrarum, Danny.  The Gate of Stars.  What did you think it meant?"

"The Gate of…" he stopped.  "I didn't think it meant anything.  You were five years old!"  He took a deep breath, trying to collect his thoughts.  "Maybe you'd better tell me the whole story."

"Again?"

"What?" he looked at her sharply.  "I mean about the Stargate."

"I know," she said, wrapping her arms around one knee.  "I used to tell you about it all the time when I was little."  He could feel her eyes on him as his mind raced, trying to recall words he had always figured to be childish ramblings and stories.  "Should have known," she said in disgust after a moment, then sighed.  "I'll tell you the whole story.  But first, can I have a doughnut?"

Daniel looked over to where the box Jack had dropped off say, previously forgotten.  "Sure, whatever you want."

She rose gracefully - and Daniel noticed how tall she had become since he'd last seen her - and went over to the counter to root through the doughnuts until she found one to her liking and bit in.  Custard filling burst over her chin, but she just wiped it away, a thoughtful look creeping over her face.

"Danny?"

"Hm?"

"The people you work for…they're going to want to know about this, aren't they?" she asked, hunting around for a napkin.

"Cupboard by the fridge," he said absently.  "And, yeah, I suppose they will."

"Wouldn't it be easier for me to just tell this story once?" she asked, wiping the excess filling from her chin.  "It's…it's not something I'd like to relive very often."

He looked over at her.  She was standing, leaning on the counter, hair falling into her face as she stared down at the doughnut.  Her eyes, starlight backlighting suns, seemed to be looking right through the pastry, into another world…

_God!  What has she seen?_ He wondered, feeling oddly protective of his younger cousin.  He desperately wanted her to know what she was talking about, but making her tell him now – only to relate it again in a few hours to Hammond – seemed cruel.

"I'll call the base," he said.

(*)

"Uh…sir?"

General Hammond looked up from his paperwork to see a very nervous Colonel O'Neill standing in his doorway.

"What is it, Colonel?" 

"You remember I said Daniel wouldn't be in today, sir?" said O'Neill, venturing into the office.

"Yes, Colonel.  Your point?"

"I was…ah, wrong." O'Neill was looking anywhere but at his CO.

"So Doctor Jackson will be in today?" said Hammond, trying to sound impatient.

"Yes sir…" the colonel took a deep breath and finally looked Hammond in the eye.  "And he's going to have a guest, sir."

"A guest, Colonel?"

"Yes, sir.  His niece," O'Neill started to look nervous again.

"For heaven's sake, Colonel, spit it out," said Hammond, annoyed.  What could his second in command possibly have to say that could take this long?  He hated having his paper work interrupted.

"Yes, sir."  O'Neill took a breath. "Daniel's niece, Ki something, showed up late last night…something about her parents dying.  That's when Danny called and told me he wouldn't be in today.  He called again a few minutes ago, sounding pretty stressed…somehow the girl knows about the 'Gate, sir."

There was silence as the General attempted to process the flood of information O'Neill had just blurted out.  Strange how small details jump out in crisis situations.  "Daniel has a niece?" he asked blankly.

"Seems so, sir."

Hammond's mind was racing, replaying the previous three minutes over several times… "And she knows about the Stargate?"  His eyes widened slightly, his face flushing as he realized what had just been said.  "How the _hell_ does she know that?"

"Don't know, sir," mumbled O'Neill.

"Doctor Jackson's bringing her in?"

The Colonel nodded.  "They're on their way now."

"Get everyone in the conference room, Colonel," Hammond said, pushing aside the papers coating his desk.  "We have a problem."

~

NB: I'm SO sorry it took so long to get this chap up!  My computer's been in pieces for the past few weeks…sigh  Anyhow, I hope this is enjoyed….Next time: Kieal's story.


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